Fort Smith Police Chief Offers New Crime Stats

A first peek at Fort Smith's crime statistics for 2012 was offered to members of the League of Women Voters on Monday.

A first peek at Fort Smith’s crime statistics for 2012 was offered to members of the League of Women Voters on Monday.

“Crime overall has gone down, even though we had a little bit of an uptick” in 2012, said Police Chief Kevin Lindsey, guest speaker at the league’s meeting at Golden Corral.

Last year saw an increase in crime when compared to 2011, Lindsey said, but in 2011, there was a “significant downturn in crime” compared to 2010.

The Fort Smith Police Department reports just under 5,800 criminal incidents in 2012. The previous year saw just under 5,600; 2010 was between 6,100-6,200.

Lindsey noted a rise in homicides.

“For the years 2009 through 2011, we had five homicides each year,” he said. “In 2012, we had seven. These are all homicides that dealt with people who knew each other, either family members directly, or in some cases last year, we had drug deals go bad.”

The Police Department responds to about 75,000 calls a year.

“That has stayed pretty steady over my six-year tenure,” Lindsey said. “Calls for service are anything from a citizen calling up to say, ‘Somebody is walking around my house’ … to an officer making a traffic stop on a vehicle.”

Many crimes, Lindsey said, can be linked to drugs.

“If I can rid the community of drugs, we could reduce our crime by 80 percent,” he said. “I don’t think that’s an exaggeration. A lot of the crime in our community is drug-driven.”

War On Drugs

Drugs are “just part of the community, unfortunately,” according to Lindsey. He notes the drugs of choice as marijuana and methamphetamine.

“Methamphetamine is not manufactured much locally anymore,” he said. “It used to be a lot.”

He said state laws that keep an eye on meth ingredients have kept many labs at bay.

“Most of our methamphetamine comes from Mexico,” Lindsey said.

In drug-related cases, the Police Department seized more than $125,000, 92 vehicles and executed 32 search warrants in 2012.

“We arrested over 1,600 drug dealers and users last year,” Lindsey said, “compared to 1,688 in 2011 and 1,172 in 2010. We are pretty consistent in our arrests.”

Gang Activity

When asked about street gangs in Fort Smith, Lindsey said that in 2010 following a spate of drive-by shootings, a special unit was tasked with identifying and rounding up leaders and members.

“We identified 32 street gangs with a total combined membership of 254 bona fide gang members,” he said. “They represented many different ethnic groups, but the predominant ethnicity was Hispanic.”

During six months of investigation into gangs, assaults of all types dropped 60 percent, Lindsey said. Criminal mischief and graffiti also took a dive during those months, he added.

The archery-only hunt will take place on Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority land, Lindsey said.

“Regardless of whether you’re a hunter or not … the bottom line is there is a reason for this,” he said. “The people at the FCRA went to the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission and said, ‘We’ve got a problem here.’”

Lindsey said his job was to weigh the benefits.

“The requirements that are in place, I think, are sufficient to justify the availability of a deer hunt,” he said. “I do think that it’s going to be a safe activity for those that want to participate. They certainly have to jump through a lot of hoops in order to do that.”

Lindsey was asked if the hunt would be allowed in areas of the city other than Chaffee Crossing.

“It’s citywide, but I can tell you I am not interested in expanding it,” he said. “You’re not going to see hunts in Hardscrabble. You’re not going to see hunts in Fianna Hills. You’re not going to see hunts in any place other than the Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority (area), at least in the near future.